In girls basketball, the Ballard Beavers went into an Arizona desert loaded with top California teams and came away with two wins out of three during the Christmas break.

They came back to town to face the cross-town rival Franklin Quakers in Rainier Valley on January 4 and suffered a 43 to 35 loss.

Ballard has a new coach in Karen Blair, who has brought with her a reputation for success at the highest levels of Washington prep basketball.

The Ballard girls are adjusting to Blair's system of basketball that earned her 255 victories, two state titles at Meadowdale High and numerous coaching honors.

If the trip to the Citrus Tournament in Arizona did anything, if helped Ballard prepare for a series of tough games against the Quakers, the defending state champion Garfield Bulldogs and Eastlake to open the 2006 portion of their schedule.

The Bulldog game was played after the News-Tribune editorial deadline on Friday. The Eastlake game was played today.

When the Beavers arrived in Arizona on December 27, they tipped off against Sacred Heart of San Francisco, a team ranked in the top five of the state of California.

Sacred Heart proved that high ranking was no fluke and gave Ballard no mercy as they crushed the Beavers in a convincing 63-17 defeat.

The Beavers regrouped and found the game Blair knew they had in them. Ballard won their next two games against Cerritos (36-33) and Warren (52-47), both high schools from California.

Blair says her team has come a long way since training camp started. Even with the huge loss to Sacred Heart where the Beavers were left licking their wounds, Ballard came back to compete in two close ball games won by three and five points.

"We beat a couple of pretty good teams. That's a sign of a team coming together and doing the little things down the stretch to win games, " said Blair.

While they did spend some time doing homework, Blair let her team have some fun at a University of Arizona women's game plus some shopping trips.

There was a lot of team bonding included in the experience. "We were getting to know each other and hopefully helped our team chemistry on the court," said Blair.

Senior Gillian Huggins has blossomed under Blair and her assistant coaches.

"She is a great athlete, a gifted shooter and a great rebounder. She had a couple of double doubles for us and is buying into the system. She is providing good leadership as well," said Blair.

With non-league games out of the way, Ballard is facing the regular KingCo portion of their season.

"We have a lot to work on and hopefully, playing some of those teams down in Arizona will help prepare us for that. We hope to execute the game plan," said Blair.

Ballard plays Skyline at home on Friday, Jan. 13 at 6:30 p.m.